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Chinese electric car startup Nio aspires to be the Tesla of China. To achieve that, its founder and CEO William Li wants his customers to feel like they're part of an exclusive club.
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To begin with, Nio offers its customers the Nio app. In addition to providing practical assistance to Nio drivers, such as dispatching a mobile charging station to revive a dead battery, the app also connects customers to an entire social network of other Nio owners.Li has also built a handful of private social clubs called Nio Houses. Located in large Chinese cities, Nio Houses feature a car showroom on the first floor and a private clubhouse on the second floor, which is only open to Nio car owners. Nio Houses offer numerous perks, including courses on topics like flower arranging and espresso making, and private rooms where Nio owners can hold business meetings.
The age-old advertising strategy of "Keeping up with the Wangs."
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday February 25 2019, @06:56PM (6 children)
The somewhat present car culture is completely outweighed by public transit infrastructure that gets from any population center to any other cheaply and efficiently.
The fact that you're always* a short walk to a bus stop, and a short bus trip to a train station, and extremely fast train ride to another city means the few, rich people who do own cars, do so as a luxury, not a need. Vehicle pricing doesn't need to be on the market floor and sustainability is easy.
*okay, okay, not if you're the third of the population who is rural, dirt poor, and ignored by the government entirely
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 25 2019, @07:07PM (1 child)
You seem to be an expert; do other cultural comparisons with the West hold true:
Big Wang Little Car
Little Wang Big Car
Or do they all drive big cars?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday February 25 2019, @08:06PM
In China, it's definitely still in the ramp-up phase : Big Wallet Big Car.
Pretty typical really : first/second generations with disposable income spending an outsized amount of it on the status symbol.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday February 25 2019, @07:14PM
They wish. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34592186 [bbc.com]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 25 2019, @07:42PM
If you are a China expat, guess it has been a while since you last visited
https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1002522/odds-of-getting-a-beijing-license-plate-are-now-1-in-2%2C031 [sixthtone.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 25 2019, @08:35PM (1 child)
Right, because there is no other use for cars than to transfer people around, and only to places where there's already trains and busses going.
Or perhaps you are just another ignorant fool.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday February 25 2019, @10:01PM
In your attempt to be sarcastic and dismissive you accidentally forgot to elucidate us on any actual particular thing I've overlooked.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Monday February 25 2019, @07:43PM (1 child)
Maybe when everyone is thoroughly sick of the current crop of Dunning-Kruger afflicted idiots who are in power and the unending mess they make worse every day, the focus on fake problems and the wastefully stupid proposals that wouldn't solve them even if they were real, and expel the idiots from office like a sick body expelling diarrhea, America can get back on track with technological advance. Should've been well into the transition to battery electric vehicles by now, instead of still standing on the sidelines, kicking the tires. Unless we in the US want to be a bunch of 2nd raters?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday February 25 2019, @09:28PM
Like us here in Canada: spend billions saving rich people stuck in the oil industry while running right over Canadians rights and desires.
Unfortunately, the liberals will be voted out and the conservatives will be voted in and it will be more of the same and worse because VOTERS DON'T SEEM TO THINK!
God's, it's like WE have a 2 party system as well because of too many stupids.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 25 2019, @08:15PM
i guess its the extreme reverse of the other trend where belching as much black smoke as possible is desired?
maybe only results count and how they were achieved is not important. so if exclusive clubs and apps and whatnot are required to get the sheep to go electric... who am i to complain.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 25 2019, @08:17PM (2 children)
I see what you did there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 25 2019, @08:50PM (1 child)
Blowjobs are real jobs!
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday February 25 2019, @09:40PM
So is Steve Jobs! Or was.
....how's accumulating all that money working out for you, Steve? Doing much for you? Hmmm?
And how's that book coming along? You know, that book you've been writing?..... The book? You know? .........The book you've........ been writing? That book! That book you said is coming along? You know? The book?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Monday February 25 2019, @09:13PM
This is nothing particularly new.
You fly first class, you get access to special airport lounges in some cases. Not to mention, well, you're flying first class.
The US is as prone to special perks for special jerks as anywhere else; no one here thinks they're getting into Mar-A-Lago, do they? Getting invited to float away on Octopus, Paul Allen's yacht? To fly on John Travolta's private 707?
No, people watch from afar, while they imagine that someday, somehow, they'll become rich. Which they almost certainly will not. But they'll go to their graves shrieking about "entitlements", so there is some satisfaction in their lives.
And that's just the way the rich and their political minions want it.
--
I have neither the time or the crayons to explain.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 25 2019, @11:27PM (1 child)
Why buy a car just because it gets you free flower-arranging lessons? I would understand if the clubs had a massage parlor.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Monday February 25 2019, @11:58PM
You aren't buying whatever lessons, you are buying social status.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0